In an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the actress revealed that she used part of her payout from the magazine to send her family on a cruise in the hope that they would not see her spread as Miss October when it hit shelves.
"My sister said to me, 'Run away. You're going to die. They're [parents] going to kill you'. So I didn't tell my parents that I was going to pose for Playboy. With the $2,000 out of the $20,000 you get paid, I sent them on a cruise the week the magazine came out," she explained.
"They found out. It was all over the papers, like, 'Southside Chicago girl poses nude! She went to Mother McAuley, a very prestigious Catholic school'. I was surprised my house wasn't burned down."
She continued: "My mum came home and was like, 'Oh my God, what are the neighbours gonna say?' And then, after about three days, she said, 'You know what, I love you so much Jenny and I'm gonna stand by you. I hope you never do that again'.
"I said to her, 'You know what, some day I'm gonna make you proud', and to this day she's like, 'Y'know, after all that autism work [you do], I don't care if you showed your butt'."
